Have you ever bought an article of clothing like you were speculating on the stock market? I have. I once bought capris pants 2 whole sizes too small for me because I hoped they would someday fit. I think this is a woman thing. I can’t picture any man I know buying clothes for himself that did not fit.
Over the past 12 years my weight has fluctuated up and down. I’ve owned A LOT of different sizes. I’ve also kept a few articles of clothing that I never thought would fit me again. Back in 2003, I lost a lot of weight doing Weight Watchers. I did not exercise. I deprived myself of a lot of food I loved and I ate a lot of fake food- lots of diet coke, lots of fat free, sugar free stuff, etc etc. I did lose almost 50 lbs. I was the lightest I had been since I was a teenager. I loved shopping then. I was a size 6 and everything fit and everything looked awesome. I wasn’t afraid to spend a little more money on my clothes because my size was an investment. It was the size I wanted to be forever. Well, I wasn’t a size 6 forever. My second pregnancy in 2005 and the Kitchenaid Mixer I got for Christmas in 2008 made those awesome clothes too tight. (My mixer is named Martha and she didn’t actually make me gain weight- it was all the delicious desserts I used her to make that made me gain weight!)
I got rid of most of those clothes but I kept one thing. One size 6. I kept these awesome Gap, straight leg, dark denim jeans that rolled into capris. One day I hoped to fit into those pants!
Well, today is that day! I started wearing them a few weeks ago and those 11 year old pants do make me feel happy. Here is the most interesting thing about those pants- and its not that they are back in style! Ha!
Last time I wore those pants I was about 15lbs LIGHTER than I am right now.
Yes- lighter.
Yes- they fit.
How is that possible?
I work out now. I did not work out in 2003. I am heavier but I’m also stronger, healthier and more muscular. Stop weighing yourself. That scale is not telling you anything. The scale is only measuring your relationship with gravity. That scale would have lied to me and said I wouldn’t fit in my 11yr old pants. Scales suck!

I do want to be a size 6 forever. In order to maintain that, I have changed the way I eat BUT I still like and miss some of the food I ate before I started clean eating. As I get more comfortable with clean eating, I am getting more confident at applying my new “eating rules” to food I liked before.
I love Pad Thai. A few simple tweaks to my former recipe was all it took to clean up the recipe. I started with this recipe http://www.recapo.com/the-chew/the-chew-recipes/the-chew-chicken-pad-thai-recipe-tyler-blackburn-ravenswood-review/ and customized it for me and my kids. This is what I did to make my cleaner Pad Thai
Ingredients
1 cup cooked chicken breast
1 cup julienned carrots
1 can of mini cobs of corn (I know not super clean as corn is super GMO but its how I can get my daughter to actually eat Pad Thai ;)) **you can substitute veggies your family likes**
2 cups bean sprouts
4 thin sliced Scallions
200 g Pad Thai Rice Noodles
2 Eggs
4 cloves minced Garlic
1/4 cup rough chopped Cilantro
1 tbsp peanuts, rough chopped (optional)
Grapeseed Oil

Sauce Ingredients

1/2 cup Water
1 lime, juiced
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
4 cloves minced Garlic
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup natural peanut butter (I used PC Just Peanuts- no sugar added)
3 tbsp Tamari Sauce
1/4 tsp Thai Chili Sauce

Cook noodles as directed.
Drain water. Toss noodles with a tablespoon of grapeseed oil. Set noodles aside.
To make the sauce, stir sauce ingredients (except chili paste) on medium heat in a small saucepan. Stir constantly as mixture comes to a boil- then set aside.
In a wok or skillet, heat oil on medium.
Crack eggs in the pan. Scramble them until they set. Reserve the eggs.
Heat more oil in the pan. Add garlic, then carrots.
Stir together until fully cooked, four to five minutes.
Add mini cobs of corn, eggs, sprouts, cooked chicken, and noodles.
Toss everything together with the sauce to combine it.
Serve with scallions, cilantro, lime, peanuts, and chili sauce.

(Pad Thai is not overly photogenic!)
I made the recipe again (just to make sure it was alright and the kids ate most of it so there were no leftovers 😦 )
This time I omitted the mini corn cobs (not my fav) and stir-fried a pound of shrimp with the garlic and carrots. YUM!

A note about peanuts and peanut butter. I try to avoid peanuts and peanut butter. I will occasionally eat them. There are many better nuts out there, better nut butters out there than peanuts and peanut butter. Peanuts are an inflammatory food and are really high in fat and calories. Almonds and almond butter are a much better choice. And lets face it, the main problem with peanut butter is IT TASTES TOO GOOD SO IT IS HARD TO STOP EATING IT!!!!!

I also made these awesome brownies for dessert. They are Black Bean Brownies. They totally fooled my kids- my daughter had no idea the secret ingredient was black beans! (tee hee hee!) The recipe can be found here: http://www.innerathletes.net/recipes.html. You will need to scroll as the recipe is near the bottom of the page. Here is how the brownies looked before baking

I never got a picture of the completed brownie since Boyd (my yellow lab) was also fooled by the black beans and ate half the pan of brownies and tongue bathed the rest 😦 Good thing he is so cute!

Choose happy 🙂